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UPDATE: A 54-year-old Port Jervis, NY woman driving a Chevrolet SUV veered off the roadway to the right and struck a guardrail, sending the vehicle into the roadway in front of a Chevrolet pickup truck near milepost 136.5 in Clark, New Jersey State Police Trooper Charles Marchan said.
The SUV driver was ejected and seriously injured, but things could've turned out differently if not for the off-duty Passaic firefighter, nurse, and driver who stopped to revive her.
The firefighter told Daily Voice he had left work about 10 minutes late — but apparently right on time for the victim.
He was heading north, but looked to his left and noticed the aftermath of a crash in the southbound lanes at 1:55 p.m.
And an unresponsive woman in her 40s lying face down in the middle of the road, surrounded by people who seemed not to know what to do.
So, the firefighter pulled over, had help rolling the woman over, and began chest compressions.
"I was trying to get some kind of response from her after we rolled her onto her back," he tells Daily Voice. "And then she stopped breathing and we lost a pulse."
Moments later, the firefighter was joined by a driver from Bergen County, who was also heading north when he saw commotion.
"I pulled over to the median, put my flashers on, and jumped over," the driver told Daily Voice, still shaking and covered in blood. "The off-duty firefighter at the scene had rolled her over and said she wasn't breathing."
The driver tilted the victim's head back to open her airways, while the firefighter performed chest compressions. A nurse who showed up monitored her pulse.
After the 30th compression, the firefighter paused. The woman gasped, and regained a normal breathing rhythm, the firefighter said.
"We tried to stay one step ahead, stabilizing her neck and feet," the driver tells Daily Voice. "We wanted to cut any short ends that we could."
When police came, they applied an AED that they provided.
By the time paramedics arrived, the victim was responsive: "In serious condition, but stable," the driver said.
A landing zone was being established, but it wasn't immediately clear if the victim was flown or transported by ambulance.
"The firefighter was the first one there and really took action," Daily Voice's source said. "He did what he was trained to do."
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